Elliot´s Trackside Diner April 2011

[JimRCGMO]

Afternoon, Janie - I’ll have some cheesey fries with ketchup and a RBF, please ‘n’ thanks!

I'm back from Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s training for w**k (in Jefferson City, MO - about a four hour drive - one way. (Boring... “Can you say ‘useless’, Diners?”) It was for ‘Serious Incident Investigations’ - except I don’t think they ever got too specific about what makes ‘serious’, serious. And it seemed the info was oriented toward agencies who have residential facilities they manage, and need to investigate incidents where a client got injured (sorta to see if the employee needs to be fired or not). Not exactly related to crisis services. I asked our outpatient supervisor after I got back about whether they were planning to turn me into an ‘investigator’, and how the needs of that didn’t match at all with the time and chaos of crisis/walk-in services with us. From what she answered, it was apparently something the state mental health dept. requires all agencies to have somebody trained in. (Whew! Sure better, knowing THAT) Funny part was, they paid - between my mileage, expenses, hotel stay for 2 days, and my meals, etc. - about six or seven hundred to send someone (and there’s another person from our branch offices who still needs to go to another session of the same training). Not to worry - between the state and our agency, we’re all doing our part to keep the economy going!

CudaKen - Thanks for the pics of the BigBoys! I’ll have to check exactly when, but UP is supposed to be running something (not sure here, it’s big, but I don’t recall if it’s a BigBoy or a Challenger) through Cape G. on the way to Little Rock and parts south, this summer. And man, your workday from you-know-where sounded like one to be done with ASAP and heading for home! I had to laugh at the store’s bank not wanting you to deposit the money for them. First time I’ve heard of a bank turning down money!  Congratulations on your health improvements (reminded me I need to get my (sorta-kinda) annual checkup with my doctor set up).

For Garry. Robby and all the other Diners who’ve been w**king on a junkyard for part of your layout, this was my solution (purchased on that ‘Bay thingee):

I’ve bought other castings from the guy (look for seller name ‘bbudd1’), including some tanks (the oval, smaller kinds), couple of larger (commercial sized) propane tanks for industry placements, and he has a set of locomotive drivers and other ‘enginehouse scrap pile’ castings. I’ll have to do a little clean up on the castings and paint them, but hey, most of them are ‘junk,’ so shouldn’t be super difficult, right (I have rust-colored paint)? And I have no financial investment in that seller (other than the money I’ve spent and consider I got very good value for, that is).

Jeff, many thanks for the photo of Ezra’s place - has a nice comfy look to it that I like! And I see that spring training has begun for the ball teams on your layout, too.

Galaxy, that sounds G-R-E-A-T-!-! that  you’re going MRR layout-top (aka house) shopping! Hope your realtor starts finding some better ranch houses for you soon. I guess great minds must think alike - I replaced my other wiper blade on my car this afternoon (got the driver side several weeks ago) at Auto Zone. Now you’ll get to draw up some new layout plans, with all the extra space you’ll have.

Ulrich, keep your eyes open and keep searching for a possible job opening this side of the Pond (maybe you could land a job with a company that could help you get a green card, so they could make use of your experience and business skills) On your delayed order, maybe you should have the mail woman set in down in a corner of the apartment and wait to see whether it glows in the dark at night, before you open it... On your scenery order, you could contact the places online which have good prices and see if they could get in the items they don’t show, and hold your order to ship it all in one shipment. Some places are willing to w**k with you if it increases their order total - worth a try!

Barry, you’ve been posting some interesting (commercial trackside?) photos - I was wondering on one if that was an aerial of a small yard, or a town with a couple of double-ended sidings for local industries.... Then there was that killer-sized multi-track-landing-whatchamathingee...

Garry, congrats on the new (iMac) ‘puter, and feel free to email Ray or me with any questions. (As for it serving you many years, my PowerBook has had its tenth ‘birthday’, if that gives you an indication). There’s a good layout design program called RailModeller (made in Ulrich’s current country of residence, Deutschland) that’s affordable. How’ve you been doing, and have you made it back home for a stay yet? If so, where’d you go for an Apple Store? Louisville, Nashville, or...? (Jes’ call me nozy...)

Todd, I have one of those rolls of the brown paper towels (which I got who-knows-where, several years back), which when I get to my scenery, will be used for the ‘glueshell’ method I want to try. (Got my P-o'-P at a hardware store in those wax milk-carton-looking things). Read about THAT in Iain Rice’s “Roque Bluffs” layout series in MR (or was it in the Jerome & Southwestern layout by John Olson?...). Anywho, I liked the idea of the ‘glueshell’ because it’s supposed to be a bit more flexible than using the P-o’-P and paper towels. But then again, I haven’t tried it just yet, so dunno. As for your layout’s name, you can always claim your RR is a branch of the T&P, that they took it over. Yeah, that sounds do-able, right? As for your ‘invitation’ to the garage-cleaning, yeah, it’s go or suffer the consequences (frostbite in the living room - to say nothing of how cold the bedroom will be at night - plus, your dinners burned or cold for the next month or two, etc.).

Rob, I like those canyons - they look rugged, all right! I’m picturing scrubby dried-up bushes, rocks and talus, with slithery things and such, crawling along through the underbrush.

Johnboy - not sure if my PM went through okay or not. Let me know; the PM window was acting kinda flaky on me...

Weather here in Cape G.-land today has been great - we hit 70 F (22 C) this afternoon, sun's out and all very good. If it's this nice tomorrow after church, I have some MRR stuff that will get spray-painted.

I'll chill out at the window booth and eat my while I catch up with Johnboy and the other Diners I haven't talked with for a while.

[Edit] Looks like I'll be covering the tab - take it easy, Diners, payday's not till Thursday for me...

 

Blessings and prayers,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[Cederstrand]

Grilled chicken dinner and a coffee refill, please.

***Jim, I really like the look of that "junk yard". If it came already painted, that would be even better. Curious, does he sell them in both HO & N? My wife needs more junk (especially tires) for her HO layout. She's been eyeing the stacks of tires in the Walthers catalog.

Killed a bunch of cans this evening. Just doing my part to recycle them (target practice).

Cheers! Rob

[blownout cylinder]

Barry, you’ve been posting some interesting (commercial trackside?) photos - I was wondering on one if that was an aerial of a small yard, or a town with a couple of double-ended sidings for local industries.... Then there was that killer-sized multi-track-landing-whatchamathingee...

I found a lot of them at this site...http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585...all 1,215+ pages of it!!  

The day was spent either in my backyard cleaning it or on the roof examining the mess up there..several torn missing shingles...eavestrough down in the back as well...Steel Roofing here we come..  

Chloe, I'll have a coffee and a slice of chocolate cream pie please..I'll be at the RC for a bit...

[galaxy]

Curt Webb

Galaxy- Do you have the option to go to Wally World either late night or very early morning? We have a 24 hr one by us.

We Do have a 24 hour. I like to go early AM, but we got up too late today to beat teh crowds. I don't do late night as we are usually in bed by 9-9:30 PM.

JimRCGMO

Galaxy, that sounds G-R-E-A-T-!-! that  you’re going MRR layout-top (aka house) shopping! Hope your realtor starts finding some better ranch houses for you soon. I guess great minds must think alike - I replaced my other wiper blade on my car this afternoon (got the driver side several weeks ago) at Auto Zone. Now you’ll get to draw up some new layout plans, with all the extra space you’ll have.

Yeah it's great BUT ranch houses here are typically at a premium over 2 story or capes. The inventory this year is low as people are hanging on to what they got instead of moving up to larger houses. It is not really a seller's market or buyer's market, but mediocre. We don't have to move right away so we have time to look and find the "just right" house...which sadly enough went on the market a month ago and within a week was under contract taht the agent assures me WILL go through {so we can't be second contractors if deal falls through}, but when I saw it online, I did not have the info that we would have a cash backer to help us out. Had I had that info, we could have waltzed right through and bought that house. Location, price, 3br/1ba {better than 2 BR which is more in our range}, dry concrete full basement, sizeable lot and city utilities including Nat. gas heat. would have been perfect. Only needed to buy new apliances to finish out. Darn!

Although some auto parts stores will actually install some things for you for free, I seem to take forever to do the "simple" wiper cahnge out. If I have it done paid professional when I do the inspection. I know I am good to go for new blades for summer. In the fall I will need an alignment, oil change or some such, so I will have tehm do it again so I know I have new wipers form winter weather. May cost a few busks but the piece of mind it is done is "priceless".

Hape everybody has a great evening!

 

[teen steam fan]

Evening, One of those legendary RBFs I've heard so much about. thanks. 

Tomorrow bright and early I am starting to work on my Jeep. New fender, door and lift kit. Caffeine and wish me luck. (thank you Jerry Reed.)

[Curt Webb]

Hi All,

Not much going on here. Went to  the train club for a while today. Got back about 2000. I felt like doing some modeling instead of running trains. Picked  up my 14 turnouts. I also acquired a free building I will be using on the 2nd track on the freight siding. I also got a work platform that I will use for my diesel servicing.

When I got home I painted my POP rocks and rock face. They turned out pretty well. I will post a picture Monday.

In honor of the diner's new location: Horeshoe Curve Circa 1930

[cudaken]

 Evening Folks

 Flo I take a please.

 Well Today Pretty Much Blew Chunks! Besides coming to the dinner the best part of the day was the rest of the exhaust falling off the Dodge Daytona! Dragged it for 12 miles to get to work. Did find a way to get it up of the ground for the return trip.

 It was real Sloooow today. Only had 4 customers on a Saturday?  All 4 bought, but only 4?

 I was told I could close the store if I was not busy today at 6:00 PM. But I ran into a snag, I need a delivery from our warehouse. 4 o'clock, no truck, 5 o'clock no truck. Got on the phone, truck was heading to another store, called the other store, no truck. Called the other store again at 6:00, no truck? 6:32 PM other store called and the truck was there. So much for getting off at 6!

 Bottom line is truck did not show up to my store till 8:00 PM and the F&^% order was messed up! Had a mattress sold we no longer carry so they just crossed it off list and never called and said "we are out of that one, what do you want use to send instead?" But Noooooooo, lets just cross it off and when Ken's customer get's to his store let him figure it out! 

 They fired Mike (old warehouse manger) because it got sick at work sometimes. But rather he be or not, we got what we needed, was told if we did not have it and the trucks got to the stores and customers on time.

 I take a drunk Mike over a sober Cody and day of the week. I will add, I would have fired Mike as well if I was the boss, but I sure do miss him.

 See you all Sunday.

                      Ken 

[Packer]

Night guys

Been working on the car, again. It seems Mr. Murphy has taken a liking to it. Power steering is fine now. But then as soon as I got that straighened out the missing came back....

Went through 3 ignition modules today. The O'riellies one wouldn't let me get above 1300 rpms. Got the orignal motorcraft one back one and it worked alright (kind of rough) until I dropped the hammer (testing how a tune worked out at wide open throttle) and it stuttered and rattled at WOT. Wouldn't get above 3000. Got one from autozone and it did the same thing. Also changed the distributor since that fixed the missing problem the last time. All not really doing much. Still stuck at 3000 rpm max.

I checked around with a voltimeter and found that the wire from the spout connector is grounded. Also found a bunch more things when looking up the one code I have online. Tomorrow I'll check up on the stuff I found, and then check the wire all the way to the computer. Ughhh..

Stop back in tomorrow.

Curt, I'm with Jeff on the catalytic converters. I took mine off of my car. Managed to sell them off and make some money.

drop back in later.

[Cederstrand]

Chamomile Tea and a Melatonin, please.

Worked on lots of non-MRRing stuff this evening.

Time to hit the hay. Good Night, Y'all. 

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Good Morning,

stayed up late last night as we had guests for dinner. It was really a nice evening, which we enjoyed very much. We had not have too much of a chance to entertain guests lately, as the number of friends has rapidly declined in recent years.

Zoe, I´ll go for a big Sunday breakfast with all the works, please.

After a nice and sunny day yesterday, our weather is back to normal for this time of the year - Barry´d say "dull". Temps dropped down to a mere 10° C, with a lot of that wet & liquid stuff pouring down. It´d be a perfect day to do some MRRing, but I still have to wait for that order of track to arrive.

Ken - an exhaust pipe breaking off is an annoying thing, but the sound must have been terrific!

Have a good day!

[LSWrr]

Good morning,

Last Wednesday we had 3-5” of snow, tomorrow it will be 70’s and rain followed by highs in the 40’s.

Started on the train room annex yesterday, the bench work has been sitting there since 2009…

I see Rob has made good progress on his layout!

I’ve been casting junk for a while in HO scale.  I just happen to have a pile of tires if you want some Rob.

Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery to those on the sick and injured list.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning..

Mainly sunny this morning with increasing clouds towards noon..rain beginning this afternoon and continuing until late in the day Monday...highs will be 46F today going to 50F overnight and be a high of 57F by tomorrow....oh...and there is a chance of those ol' t'underin'boomers as well with winds up to 40mph...

I actually got a call last night ...a question about somesuch...wow.

Today I am going to find out how much it will ding me to get steel roofing...

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 66° with some clouds. The high will be 87 and it will be will partly cloudy. There's a chance of thunderstorms tonight.

Well I bit the bullet yesterday and mowed my parents yard. Mowed down a large patch of wild onion by the old footbridge out to the island. Talk about bringing a tear to the eye. Hoo man! That stuff was potent! About a quarter acre of the back yard smelled like chopped onions. Today I'll probably be going to town to get the second half of the grocery shopping done.

[Cederstrand]

Glass of water, please.

***Jeffrey, hope you're not overdoing it. Funny thing about those wild onions, I always know when our horses have found some in their pasture by their breath.

***Lee, my wife would be most appreciative of any tires you would like to toss her way. She wants to pile a bunch up near her "Sons Of Anarchy" building and scatter a few on the backside of her trailer park.

Pain in an eye woke me up. Took the morning med and am heading back to bed. Not ready to start the day.

Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Cederstrand

***Jeffrey, hope you're not overdoing it.

I'm trying not to. So far all that's on my schedule today is the grocery shopping. I'm hoping nothing else gets added to it.

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Not much going on here. It is supposed to get up to 86 today with plenty of sun. I think in the next couple of weeks we are going to be in the 90's. I am not  sure what happened to the horseshoe curve photo I posted.

Here are my painted POP rocks. I am thinking of applying some gray the the really dark area of the rock face or possibly position it so the dark spot is down so it will kind of look like water stained rock. I  am not sure which would look better.

Everyone have a good day.

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning and good to see each of you.

Curt ,,, Interesting that FM diesrls are still in submarines. 

Here are 3 FM switchers stored with other old equipment. I took the photo at Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Alabama.They have other equipment in restored condition looking much better than those pictured. 

JimCG ... I noticed somebody left the side door open again so you can sneak in. 

Jim and Rob .... I purchased a couple of my junked vehicles on Ebay from a guy who has a good selection of them. If you search in HO categories you will probably find some there. 

Looks like I'll head back to AL to help Mom with stuff. Still are some big problems but progress is made. An update on my AL sister who had numerous injuries a couple of weeks ago ... She had the 25 staples removed from her head and that will be OK. Here ear still has stitches but it will be OK All of the broken bones are heeling, but pain continues with them. 

On the layout, I am continuing with some scenery and with some wiring. 

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!! Happy trainshow day. Sorry, no time for a card.

Coffee please. Thanks.

Partly sunny, with a high near 76. Breezy, with a south wind between 23 and 26 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. Time to open some windows. Supposed to have a chance of T-storms tonight. I suppose I should at least start the generator today to insure it will run just in case. Shouldn’t be that bad though. The temps make it a shame to not be outside doing the multitude of things that need to be done out there, however the wind makes most very unpleasant or just undoable. Breazy….HA! It’s WINDY!

Didn’t do much yesterday on the layout except I did paint the windmill. Or at least the frame work part. Reminded me of painting a fence. Never seem to be done. Bringing up yet another little "how come it is'm" Ray, how come, no matter how many times you check over the model, you will always look back and notice a rung or a portion of the model you missed when painting. But not until right after the paint is closed and the brush is cleaned.

Speaking of adding to the days events, mine has already began. Or is it begun. Began.... Begun. Must go deliver some items to a friend who passed away suddenly’ sister for the benefit next weekend. This, she (Brenda) figures, will fit in perfectly after the Train Show (shakes head). Why I have to go I don't know. I did ask, the answer was a look followed by something I didn't understand, but was preceeded by the word "because" therefore anything that follows is irrelavant "because" she obviously has a reason that makes sense to her and....there's no point in listening to the why's. It only adds to the confusion. Won't take long though, just dropping a couple things off that was donated and they are on the way home. (depending on how you go home. Not on my route though)  An amateur would believe her. As for me, I am cautious of the simplicity and the apparent brevity of her plans. Also the subtle inference that MY stuff comes first. That being the "I figure after the train show we could...." part. The real kicker is the disclaimer non-chalantly thrown in at the end. " I wouldn't think it would take that long....(blink, blink, blink, tight lipped half grin)... do you?" (turns her head back forward to scan the road and resume the driving lesson)

Think I’ll have another cup, check out the Bay for curiosity sake, then head to the basement and…..who knows what. I need to get cleaning up on that one side. Today is a good day to do it. Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

[CNCharlie]

Good Morning!

Nice to hear some of you are getting some warm weather. It is 34F here right now and that will be the high for today. Oh, and it is snowing too.

It is house cleaning day as the MIL is coming over for dinner provided the snow continues to melt when it hits the pavement. I might run trains too. I have the CPR in possession of the tracks now with the S3 putting a train together. Might get the RS3 out too. In my world CP has diesalized. I

I did figure out how to get the decoder into the tender of that N scale 0-8-0 but now will have to buy a new decoder( kind of messed up the one I have) and a new 8 pin pad. I might just solder the decoder wires directly to the pins and omit the little board and that will help to reduce the height which is causing all the problems.

Took our friends out to dinner last night as a thank-you for looking after the house . I had beef short ribs that were really good.

Went over to the computer store at the university where my wife works to see about a new one. Talked for quite a while with a young techy who said he could resolve most of our problems by installing Windows 7 and adding to the memory. He thought the rest of the specs for our current one were fine. It would be less than half the cost of a new one. After some discussion that is the way will go.

Yikes the snow is really coming down now! My wife has the blinds down in the bedroom where she is watching TV as she can't stand to see the snow.

CN Charlie

[howmus]

Morning everyone!

Zoe. I'll have a short stack of buttermilk pancakes, a side order of bacon, and a few cups of dark roast coffee in a R7GV RR mug please.  THAT was quick, thank you Ma'am.

TMarsh

Bringing up yet another little "how come it is'm" Ray, how come, no matter how many times you check over the model, you will always look back and notice a rung or a portion of the model you missed when painting. But not until right after the paint is closed and the brush is cleaned.

 

 

Fetridge's Law, Todd.  Yep, THAT reads, "Nothing ever happens unless it is no longer favorable for it happen."  THAT is the law THAT governs things like if your car is making a funny noise and you can't seem to find it, just drive it over to the repair shop.  The funny noise will stop right away and won't return until just before you reach your driveway....  You can run trains all day trying to find any bad spots where derailments will happen and they will run just fine.  The next day when visitors arrive every other curve will have a derailment (or 2 or 3).  Yep Fetridge's Law!  know it well (not a deep one).

Jeffrey, we used to have a field way out back bordering on a side road that had wild onions right along the road.  If a cow manages to find even one of those things, you have "Onion Flavored Milk!"  I prefer chocolate personally.  On one occasion we had to dump the milk for a couple of days until it got out of the cows system....  An expensive proposition I might add.

Dinner tonight at my son's house....  I got nominated to bring a vegetable.  Sol (the note between Fa and La) I said I would make up the last of my famous winter squash as I have one squash left in cold storage (an unheated bedroom) THAT I wanted to use up anyway.  I go check this morning, and the squash appears to be still good, but I am out of brown sugar and several other things.  I'll be making a trip to the grocery store soon....  See, Fetridge's Law!

Currently a nice sunny 46°F outside.  Tomorrow it will reach 60°F but will be bringing some liquid sunshine with it as well.  I have to drive to Rochester to do a photo shoot of a friends layout.  He wants to get some good shots of his layout into the Division Slide show we have playing at shows....

Seems to be a lot of Fairbanks Morse Locos around here....  Here's another one!

Best get moving, I'll catch you all later!

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Ray ... Looks like the FM still runs.

Todd ... You and Ray have similar experiences with layout gremlins as I do. 

 

 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Got the grocery shopping done and got new and a Fram oil filter for the van. On the way home I saw a pigeon that's either braver or crazier than I am. It was walking around in the road happily pecking up bugs and whatever else it could find while traffic passed overhead. It didn't seem to have a care in the world and I didn't see it flinch once. Groceries are put away and I may do the oil change on the van sometime this week. Now it's time to just lay out in front of the TV for a while and vegetate.

[teen steam fan]

Started working on the Jeep. Yes Flo that's why I stink. PB blaster is one of my best friends right now. 

Got the whole front clip off, basically I need a right front fender, front bumper and some sway bar end links. Trust me guys, PB blaster and a grinder are your best friends when working on Jeeps. Love the brand but hate those Torex bolts they use. 

Jeff- Hope you have a simple time changing the oil in your van. Fram filters are one of the best. 

[galaxy]

Got another miserable migraine headache on top of the upper repiratory infection.

SO I am miserable.

Have spent most of the day in bed or on the couch watching tv with the volume very low.

Sorry don't have better news, but such is my life.

Have a great evening guys.

 

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Flo I would love some chicken parmesan, garlic  bread and Ice Tea please.

Galaxy- I sure hope you feel better soon.

Not much hapening here. I am at w**k watching Drag Racing on the tube. I'm off tomorrow so I need to vacuum the house then I am free to work on the board. I think I will start with the weathering that Jeff recomended on 2 buildings then start laying turnouts. My Dad is coming over on Wed for lunch and to look at my progress. The last time he saw the layout it was bare wood.

Last night I gauged my J1 loco. All the wheels are in spec (including tender). The front truck assembly is extremely light so I will try the weight on top of the truck and hope it fixes the problem. I could not gauge the turnout as it was a busy night at the club.

Well take care.

[JimRCGMO]

Good Afternoon, Flo - I’ll have a grilled chicken BLT (think BLT with chicken added - yeah, that’s it!) and a RBF, please. Thank you, ma’am!

Rob, I don’t recall seeing that ‘bay seller with N scale stuff, but you could ask him. I’ve bought (also, I don’t think I mentioned it) a set of ‘crushed barrels’ and another set of assorted junk/trashcans/misc. from him. But hey, you have the artistic background - I’m sure with an airbrush and some drybrush w**k after that, you’d be able to knock those out fairly quickly. On the tires for your wife, I’ve seen the Bar Mills and the Walthers sets in the sale flyer at different times. You might also see what the discount train places online might have, and roll (s’cuse the pun...) the tires into an order with other things you would’ve already been getting over the next few weeks/month or two. I have the Bar Mills tires, and they are ‘ready to roll’ when you get them (unless you want to ‘weather’ them more). I looked on the 'Bay, but the trick on some of those castings was, the photo shows the item painted and with some scenicking, but the description says the castings are sold unpainted. (So I saved a bunch of the photos for inspiration)

Galaxy, on the car, the AutoZone guy offered to put the wiper on for me. Of course, I’d gone out and found that the directions in my package of the wiper blade had about 3-4 different ones, none of which looked exactly right (so I went back in and politely asked him to show me the right diagram for my car, and he came out and did it (turned out to be a simple ‘insert until it clicks’ thing (was I embarassed!)  (Now, it might also have had something to do with the two angry women who were chewing out the manager about the time I came into the store - first time, that is - and who had left shortly before I came back in to ask about my directions.) I figured the clerk was happy to have a customer who wasn’t threatening lawsuit or kicking their b**t, and I benefitted from the rude/obnoxious ones before me. That kinda sucks that you just missed that other 3BR ranch. Keep at it, and maybe before too much longer, another will show up! Sorry to hear about your migraine on top of the sinus thing.

Hey, Barry, that’s kinda odd that the jalopy site would have aerials of rails/towns on it, but what the heck... Oh, how’s your N scale empire coming along? (Or was that CN Charlie that was changing scales?)

Ken, I wonder if you could make any better money taking Mike’s old job - you probably could develop a lot of loyal fans at the stores! Too bad on the low attendance for yesterday; did you have good weather there? Sometimes I think good weather gets people out in it, rather than going to the store. Well, except for grocery stores, maybe... Will you be able to get THAT exhaust pipe taken care of very soon? Hope so - no fun to have a ‘tail’ draggin’.

Ulrich, good to hear about your dinner party - first, that you have some loyal friends who still stick with you, and second, because it’s always good to visit with friends over a leisurely meal/dessert.

Jeff, I’m with Rob - do what you can to dodge those additions to your ‘today’ list. Yeah, I’d agree with you about wild onions - sad thing is, when I tried washing and eating them (a ways back), they didn’t taste that good. (Darn!) That bird in the road sounded like he/she must've got really good at estimating distances and speeds of cars.

Rob, I had to chuckle about your being able to tell  when your horses had got into wild onions around the place. (Had a picture in my mind of an overly friendly horse, with really rank wild-onion-breath, trying to nuzzle up to ya... ...chuckle...)

Todd, I checked my mailbox, but I couldn’t find your Happy Trainshow Day card - did you mail it late? Yeah, I figure - based on most ‘quick’ or ‘short’ stops when I was married... - you might get home about dark this evening (or NOT!). And of course, you can’t just happen to take along an issue of MR to read, since you *will* get dragged/drug/drugged in to visit as well, right? Hey, how well I recall the ‘relativity’ of a wife’s time for a visit vs. my perception of THAT same visit’s time length. Hope you find some goodies at the train show to offset things!

CN Charlie - you’re STILL having snow? When does it quit up there - July? The only good side to that might be, you have more “It’s bad weather out, so it’s time for me to go to the train room” time.

Ah, Fetridge’s Law, eh, Ray? I think he and Murphy must’ve been close relatives. Was it Fetridge or Murphy who said that if 1) you have new carpet and take that PB&J sandwich into that room, 2) it WILL fall and land jellyside down 3) on the most obvious spot in the carpet, where everybody will be guaranteed to see it when they enter the room!? Oh, and I’m with you - even though I like plain ol’ 2 percent white milk, I’d definitely prefer the chocolate kind over the “Wild Onion-Flavored” one. (Eeyeww! Spitooee!) Hey, was that Fairbanks in your photo still in service w/the Army, or is it at a museum near you?

Got through yesterday with NO calls or pages out (including last night), and none so far today (but I’ve likely jinxed that now). So since I had some time, I went through and wrote down all the contents of my two ‘details and scratchbuilding’ MRR tubs (which was where I saw those Bar Mills tires I told Rob about). Had more assorted little doo-dads and thingamahickies than I realized (don’t know if I want to figure what I’ve spent on them, though a lot were bought on sale or closeout at Hobby Lobby, some with that 40 percent off coupon). Got me thinking down the road a bit to where some of them might fit on the layout section that I have. Also was thinking about how much more room I may need to fit the various structures and ‘stuff’ I have.

Johnboy - check your PM’s; sent you an answer.

It’s been pretty windy in Cape G-land today, winds gusting to 33 mph (53 km/h)! We might have some storming tonight, according to our weatherguessers. They were having a sale/how-to on weather-radios (and how to program them for your county’s warnings). Me, I leave the weather up to the Big WeatherBoss.

Think I’ll kick back at the window booth a spell and chow down. Prayers for less snow for CN Charlie and our NOTB Diners, for a good night’s rest (and/or with minimal/no pain for all those needing that), and for some nice 3BR ranch-over-MRR-room homes to come up for sale in upstate NY... (at a decent price, of course!)

Blessings and prayers,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[Cederstrand]

Coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.

Would you believe of the 3 locos I ran today, one was a Fairbanks Morse, another an 0-8-0. Anyway, got the tunnels glued down and set the track(s) inside the volcano. Will take at least a second helping of gloopy stuff or more to finish the process.

Looks like some serious storms ahead for a good chunk of the US. We'll get ours late tomorrow. Guess I'll put some fresh batteries in the weather radio so I'll know when to run outside with the camera.

Hope y'all are having a good day. Rob

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JimRCGMO

Jeff, That bird in the road sounded like he/she must've got really good at estimating distances and speeds of cars.

Yeah, it was pretty wild watching it. It was right out there in four lane traffic and never once left the road. It would just walk around in the center of the lane finding what it wanted with the cars and trucks going right over it like they weren't even there. Crazy.

[TMarsh]

"Oh give me a hoooome where the buffff-alo rooooam, where the deeeeer..."  Sorry, don't know why that song is in my head.

Just got back. Yah, 2and a half hour "quick stop" after.

Nothing for me thank you. The thought of onion flavored milk took the desire for anything away.

Well the trainshow was ok I suppose. Odd that a dying hobby as I read in the forums, would have so many people. I guess they are just shopping for the stuff that will be antiques and rare soon. Mostly O gage stuff though. Usually there is way more HO. Not many bargains so what most what I may have been interested inn was put into the "if I'm gonna pay full price I'd just as soon give it to Castle Trains" catagory. Not much stuff that was unavailable anymore I could use but I did get a couple things.

1- T & P cattle car. $2

1- (Yuh listenin' ken?) Pearl/Country Club beer car. $4 (boo hoo wah ha haaaaaaa)

Price of admission $10 ($5 X2) with free parking.

For the Cattle car, they were asking $3. trucks were tight and missing a coupler. Price was OK with me, (3 bucks can't complain about much) but the vendor said  "tell you what, just give me $2 cause it's missing a coupler" and handed me a dollar back. I didn't argue. That's the kind of haggling I like. Made no difference to me anyway as it had a horn hook on the other end and I was planning on changing couplers anyway. Didn't tell him that. Don't think he cared.

One vendor had boxes of car kits not in boxes but in ziploc bags. Instructions and all (as if you need it for most) at $4 each or 3 for $11. Spent a good bit going through those. But alas, nothing for me. I should have picked up 3 just because. Anyway, like I said, most everything else that was HO usable, was either new prices or unusable to me.

 Anyone else not as miserly as myself would have bought more because they are ready to change roads on cars. I'm not there yet. Oh! Could have patched! Now I think of it. 

All in all still worth the trip.

To the basement.